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The Road Not Taken
《未选择的路》
罗伯特
?
弗罗斯特
(
Robert
Frost
)
生于
1874
年,
卒于
1963
年,<
/p>
可能要算是
20
世纪美国最受欢迎和爱戴
的一位诗人
了。
1912
年,他弃农从
文,从此成为了一名专业诗人。他曾在
1961
年时受邀在约翰
?F?
肯尼迪总统的就职典礼上
朗诵他
的诗歌
——
《
The Gift Ou
tright
》
。而本次我为大家推荐的《
The Road Not Taken
》则是他最著名的一首诗歌。
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
黄色的树林里分出两条路
And sorry I
could not travel both
可惜我不能同时去涉足
And be one
traveler, long I stood
我在那路口久久伫立
And looked down
one as far as I could
我向着一条路极目望去
To where it
bent in the undergrown
直到它消失在丛林深处
Then took the
other, as just as fair
但我却选了另外一条路
And having
perhaps the better claim
它荒草萋萋,十分幽寂
Because it was
grassy and wanted wear;
显得更诱人、更美丽
Though as for
that the passing there
虽然在这两条小路上
Had worn them
really about the same
都很少留下旅人的足迹
And both that
morning equally lay
虽然那天清晨落叶满地
In leaves no
step had trodden black
两条路都未经脚印污染
Oh, I kept the
first for another day!
呵,留下一条路等改日再见!
Yet knowing how
way leads on to way,
但我知道路径延绵无尽头
I doubted if I
should even come
back.
恐怕我难以再回返
I shall be
telling this with a sigh
也许多少年后在某个地方
Somewhere ages
and ages hence:
我将轻声叹息把往事回顾
Two
roads diverged in a wood, and I---
一片树林里分出两条路
I took the one
less traveled by,
而我选了人迹更少的一条
And that has
made all the difference
从此决定了我一生的道路
评论
1
:
the volume and is printed in
italics. The title is often mistakenly given as
The poem has two recognized
interpretations; one is a more literal
interpretation, while the other is more ironic.
Readers often see the poem literally,
as an expression of individualism. Critics
typically view the poem as ironic.[1]
–
Road Not
Taken,' perhaps the most famous example of Frost's
own claims to conscious irony and 'the best
example in all of
American poetry of a
wolf
in sheep's
clothing.'
–
and Frost
himself warned
tricky poem
–
very
tricky.
whom he used to take walks
through the forest (Thomas always complained at
the end that they should have taken a different
path) and seemed amused at this certain
interpretation of the poem as inspirational.
Literal interpretation
According
to
the
literal
(and
more
common)
interpretation,
the
poem
is
inspirational,
a
paean
to
individualism
and
non-conformism.
The
poem
consists
of
four
stanzas.
In
the
first
stanza,
the
speaker
describes
his
position.
He
has
been
out
walking
in
the
woods and
comes to two roads, and he stands looking as far
down each one as he can see. He would like to try
out both, but
doubts he could do that,
so therefore he continues to look down the roads
for a long time trying to make his decision about
which road to take.
Ironic
interpretation
The
ironic
interpretation,
widely
held
by
critics,[1][5]
is
that
the
poem
is
instead
about
regret
and
personal
myth-making,
rationalizing our
decisions.
In this interpretation, the
final two lines:
I took the one less
traveled by,
And that has
made all the difference.
are ironic : the choice made little or
no difference at all, the speaker's protestations
to the contrary. The speaker admits in the
second and third stanzas that both
paths may be equally worn and equally leaf-
covered, and it is only in his future recollection
that he will call one road
The
sigh,
widely
interpreted
as
a
sigh
of
regret,
might
also
be
interpreted
ironically:
in
a
1925
letter
to
Cristine
Yates
of
Dickson, Tennessee, asking about the
sigh, Frost replied:
think I would yet
live to be sorry for the way I had taken in
life.
Everyone is a
traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map
of their continuous journey, life. There is never
a straight path
that leaves one with
but a sole direction in which to head. Regardless
of the original message that Robert Frost had
intended
to convey, his poem,
and the attitude with which he looks
upon his future that determines the shade of the
light that he will see the poem in. In any
case however, this poem clearly
demonstrates Frost's belief that it is the road
that one chooses that makes him the man who he
is.
the opportunity cost,
what will be missed out on. There is a strong
sense of regret before the choice is even made and
it lies in
the knowledge that in one
lifetime, it is impossible to travel down every
path. In an attempt to make a decision, the
traveler
may strain his eyes
to see as far the road stretches, eventually it
surpasses his vision and he can never see where it
is going to
lead. It is the way that he
chooses here that sets him off on his journey and
decides where he is going.
just as
fair, and having perhaps the better
claim.
was something that was obviously
not for everyone because it seemed that the
majority of people took the other path therefore
he calls it
type of
personality he has, one that does not want to
necessarily follow the crowd but do more of what
has never been done,
what is new and
different.
the ground and since the
time they had fallen no one had yet to pass by on
this road. Perhaps Frost does this because each
time a person comes to the point where
they have to make a choice, it is new to them,
somewhere they have never been and
they
tend to feel as though no one else had ever been
there either.
both paths is expressed
and is not unusual, but
decision is not
just a temporary one and he
acknowledging that what he chooses now
will affect every other choice he makes afterward.
Once you have performed an act
or
spoken a word that crystallizes who you are, there
is no turning back and it cannot be undone. Once
again at the end of the
poem the regret
hangs over the traveler like a heavy cloud about
to burst. He realizes that at the end of his life,
ages and ages hence
remains
proud of his decision and he recognizes that it
was this path that he chose that made him turn out
the way and he did
and live his life
the way in which he lived.
what was
most important, what really made the difference,
is that he did what he wanted, even if it meant
taking the road less
traveled. If he
hadn't, he wouldn't be the same man he is now.
There are many equally valid meanings to this poem
and Robert
Frost
may
have
intended
this.
He
may
have
been
trying
to
achieve
a
universal
understanding.
In
other
words,
there
is
no
judgment, no specificity, no moral.
There is simply a narrator who makes a decision in
his life that had changed the direction
of his life from what it may have
otherwise been. It allows all readers from all
different experiences to relate to the poem.
评论
2
:
Robert
Frost
is
one
of
the
finest
of
rural
New England’s
20th
century
pastoral
poets.
His poems
are
great
combination
of
wisdom,
harmony and serenity. They are simple at first
sight, but demand readers for deep reading to
grasp further meaning
beyond surface.
The famous poem of Frost The Road Not
Taken is my favorite. This poem consists of four
stanzas of five lines. The rhyme
scheme
is
ABAAB.
the
rhymes
are
strict
and
masculine,
with
notable
exception
of
the
last
line.
There
are
four
stressed
syllables each line, varying on iambic
tetrameter base.
The Road Not Taken
tells about life choice. Man’s life is
metaphorically related to a journey filled with
twists and turns. O
ne
has to
consider a lot before making a wise choice. Though
the diverged roads seem identical, they actually
lead to different
directions, which
symbolize different fates.
A less than
rigorous look at the poem may lead one to believe
that Frost’s moral is embodied in those lines. The
poem is take
n
as a call to
independence, preaching originality and Emersonian
self-reliance. The poem deconstructs its
conclusion stanza by
stanza.
At the beginning of this poem, the poet
shows the inability of human beings to foresee the
future, especially the results of
choices. At
the
split
in
the
road,
the
speaker
looks
far down
both
the
two
paths
to
see
what
each
of
the
paths
will
bring.
However, his sight is
limited; his eyes can only see the path until it
bends into “the undergrowth”. Man is free to
choose, b
ut
doesn’t know
beforehand the results of hi
s choice.
Both
roads
diverge
into
a
“yellow
wood”
and
appear
to
be
“about
the
same”
in
their
purposes.
The
first
path
is
a
more
common
route. The other is less traveled, which “was
grass and wanted wear”. The poet presents a
conflict here—
the decision
between the common easy path and
exceptional challenging path. The two different
paths signify two different kinds of lives.
Choosing the common easy path, people
will feel at ease and live in safety, because the
outcome is predictable. However, that
kind of l
ife may be less
exciting and lack of novelty. While choosing the
“less traveled” road represents the gamble of
facing
a more difficult path in lives.
This forms contrast with familiar lives of most
people. People hope to achiever a satisfactory
and interesting life on this road. The
wish is good, but reality is full of challenges
and uncertainties. Nobody can be sure of
the outcome. After vacillating between
the two roads, the poet finally decides to take
the road “less traveled by” and leads
a
different life from common people. This
may indicate his choice to be a poet, other than
other jobs. The poet makes up his
mind
to dedicate himself to poem writing, which is
regarded as a less common career.
Once
the decision is made, there will be no way to
return to the original choice to experience the
other route. So the poet
utters “Yet
knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I
should ever come back.” The made choice is
irrevocable, so man
must be careful and
rational before making decisions. At the same
time, he must be courageous enough to shoulder the
result
of his choice, whether it is
good or not.
Frost presents man’s
limitation to explore life’s different
possibilities. The poet “sighs” at the end of the
poem. For at th
e time
of
one’s choice, he must give up other choices and
miss some other things. At the same time, he
“sighs” with lamentation,
pondering
what he may have missed on the other path and that
he doesn’t have opportunities to experience
another kind of
life.
The
Road Not Taken is interpreted universally as a
representation of two similar choices. At the
beginning, man may face two
identical
forks, which symbolize the nexus of free choice
and fate. They contrast increasingly with each
other as they diverge
in their separate
directions. Man is fr
ee to choose, but
it’s beyond his ability to foretell the
consequences. Man can choose a
common
route which guarantees a safe and reliable life.
He can also choose a less common one which is
unknown, unique
and stands out above
other else’s. All in all, ma
n must be
responsible for his choice and has courage to
shoulder the result. He
can never go
back to the past and experience other
possibilities. It is impossible to predict the
outcome of decisions, so it is
essential for him to make wise
decisions after considering, selecting and
questioning which selection will provide him with
fulfillment.
The Road Not
Taken is full of philosophical overtones. This
poem should be read as a warning. Man should
consider a lot
before making choices
and reflect over the cho
ices he has
made to discover “all the differences”.
评论
3
:
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” has
been one of the most analyzed, quoted,
anthologized poems in American poetry. A
wide-spread interpretation claims that
the speaker in the poem is promoting individualism
and non-conformity.
A Tricky Poem
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